[Solved] Bricked ASRock Z170 PRO4 BIOS - Can't extract ROM from .exe

Hi everyone, I have an old MB and setup that I use for an arcade machine I built. Unfortunately the BIOS was corrupted during a bad update and I can’t get the screen to turn on at all, which leaves me with flashing the BIOS chip directly via a programmer. That’s all fine, but the latest BIOS files from ASRock are in .exe format, and can’t be extracted via 7zip.

I’m not sure if the original BIOS contains UEFI information I need to extract and have someone modify first or if the chip can just be flashed with appropriate .bin files?

The correct BIOS I want flashed to the chip is located HERE

It’s been a minute since I’ve had to flash anything with my programmer. I used to extract / flash EEPROMs for vehicles for a while so I have a different programmer but it’s based on the CH134a i believe.

Could someone please help guide me through this and / or provide the extracted files so I can flash the chip? If I need to provide the flash for mine, let me know and I will attempt to read it out (been a minute since I’ve had to do that).

Use the “Instant flash” version.

EDIT: Of course it needs to be extracted… isn’t that a ZIP file or do you pretend that the programmer uses a ZIP file!!!

EDIT: Who told you that the programmer cares for any extension file, move along… what matters is the data itself, as it’s a plain expanded Intel image.

you mean for 7zip extraction? it’s just a single file with no extension. z170p4_7.50.

EDIT: After extraction (from zip) that’s what i’m trying to explain. there’s just a single file z170p4_7.50. It doesn’t have a bin extension or anything. From past posts, the ASROCK BIOS files are contained within the .exe (DOS download), because the “Instant Flash” versions are for use only when you have access to the BIOS screen and aren’t a standalone flash file.

I could be completely wrong here… Just going based off what others have said about the ASRock BIOSes which are AMI based.

Your request is about getting a data bios file ready to use in an IC SPI programmer, you got the answer, have any doubts? Open the image and check yourself then…

I stand corrected. Let me give it a shot here. Not to be annoying, but what is everyone using for IC Programming nowadays (software wise), as I said from the post, it’s been a minute since I’ve used this thing.

Sir… just search the term in Google…
…a minute, hum… then go reading and learn or your doubts will be endless.
Plenty of resources and topics on the forum about programming ASROCK and the use of programmers, that’s all from me, good luck, happy new year.

For the Dos exe linked in #1

Cut 0xA4E9 in the beginning
Cut 0x20 in the end

File should be 0x800000

Thank you. I’m going off the instant flash at the moment. Just read the chip and working on backing it up as is first. Will report back here in a few.

Also for reference, turns out I do NOT have a CHA341A Programmer lol. But an Elrasoft UPA-USB programmer (UUSP-S). Works just the same though, just requires it’s own software licensed to the hardware ID of the device. A bit more complex as it’s meant to work on cars, but found the W25Q128 chip just the same.

Well, flashed the BIOS correctly, however, still a blank screen and can’t get a video signal. wondering if something else might be the issue here.

I got it all figured out. Had to flash it a couple of times, but after flash, had to turn it on and let it do it’s thing for a while, eventually the keyboard lights came on followed by the screen and I was able to get into the BIOS. All good on this end!

Well, flashed properly means chip content a 100 % identical to file intended to flash. So there’s no need to flash several times…

On the other hand: ME needs to get initialized, NVRAM is empty, that can take a lot of time and several reboots.

BUt good to hear that you got the board back to life!